The show presents dances, songs, images and objects through which Indigenous communities continue to express their relationship with the landscape. Now, in a new exhibition, Berlin’s Humboldt Forum offers a multisensory encounter with the story. Their journey takes them from the Australian desert up into the universe, where their story is reflected in the constellation of Orion and the Pleiades. The paths – which span some 500,000 square kilometres – are rooted in an epic historic narrative: a tale of seven sisters who cleverly and cunningly elude a pursuer by using the power of magic. It’s one of the most significant and extensive routes across Australia, and can be followed from Roeburn, in the west, all the way to the east coast. The Songlines of the Seven Sisters is a central creation story of the Australian continent. Through story, song and visual culture – including ceremonial performance and rock art – they describe how the continent’s landscape has been shaped over time. At their core, songlines are a means of passing ecological and cultural knowledge from generation to generation. Embedded within each path is a wealth of knowledge: astronomy, geography, ancient stories and codes of conduct. “They were used by First Nations people as a form of communication across the continent and a way of mapping Country.” Songlines are key to understanding Australian history and feature heavily within Indigenous creation myths. “Songlines have been a central feature of First Nations cultures for over 60,000 years,” explains Common Ground, an Australian First Nations-led not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying Indigenous voices.
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